Pain Will Be Inflicted

September 8, 2011

Digby

I write a lot about the Villagers’ endless preening about “shared sacrifice”, as if forcing old ladies to live on even less than they do now is somehow equal to asking corporations to depreciate their corporate jets over a longer period. It drives me crazy. But this, for some reason, made me see so red that I had to step away from the computer and take a little walk.

You’ve undoubtedly encountered the Brad Friedman scoop by this time featuring a clandestine recording of the Koch Brothers retreat in Colorado. Mother Jones published the first part yesterday. Part II is all about the lovely “everyman” Chris Christie. You know, the guy all the allegedly sensible conservatives are begging to run because he has so much working man appeal. Evidently, he was the keynote speaker at this little confab and he had a lot of really entertaining things to say (entertaining, that is, if you are the type of person who laughs at disabled people and starving animals.)

Here’s good old Governor Chris getting down to business with his audience of filthy rich fascists:

During the Q&A, one of the questioners wondered what Christie had learned in New Jersey that might be applied to the nation. His answer was direct: “This is not hard. We spend too much. We borrow too much. We tax too much. It is time to turn those three things around.”

“Now, pain will be inflicted when we change that,” he went on. “People are going to do with less. People who are used to having entitlement at a certain level will not have them at that level anymore. That’s the story.” Christie cited Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s “courageous” and “thoughtful plan” to “fix those systems” by replacing Medicare with a voucher program.

Just before the Kochs’ guests retired to sip complimentary after-dinner cordials and plot Obama’s downfall at the resort’s Buffalo Bar, Christie delivered this closer: “Please, if you leave with just one message from me, if only one message sticks: This is a huge moment of crisis and opportunity for our country. All of you are the people who are going to lead us back to American greatness. If you care enough to do it.”

Our heroes. No wonder they love him so much. He knows exactly what these assholes want to hear — “pain will be inflicted.” And that’s what this is all about.

The difference between the Democrats and the Republicans on entitlements comes down to this: Democratic elites want to pretend that they are asking for equal sacrifice from rich, middle class and poor alike so that they can assuage their consciences for inflicting pain on the more vulnerable members of society. Republican elites have no such need — they enjoy inflicting pain on the more vulnerable members of society.

It all adds up to the same thing I guess. But hearing the sadistic pleasure in that disgusting piece of work Christie’s voice sent a chill down my spine. It can happen here.

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About Digby

Digby is the pseudonym of blogger Heather Parton from Santa Monica, California, who founded the blog Hullabaloo. The once-anonymous blogger became public when she accepted the 2007 Paul Wellstone Citizen Leadership Award from the Campaign for America's Future on behalf of the progressive blogosphere.